New Friends

Karen conjured an icicle, wrapped it in some leaves, and placed it on my nose, which had swollen quite a bit from Aewyn's punch. Not wanting to waste the last potion we had, we decided to use a more rudimentary method. We had sat down in front of Wulfred, and it seemed we all agreed that we didn't like the situation the wolf pack was in at all, so we sat down to devise a plan. But before that, I had a few questions.

“Aewyn,” I directed my gaze at the girl, “why are you here?”

The blue-haired girl tilted her head, as if she didn't quite understand the question.

“I live with my family,” she finally said. “Is that strange?”

Family? Well, I don't know the situation of the beastmen in this world; maybe they are born from an animal and a human. I'm not one to judge others' preferences.

“Let me explain,” the wolf began to speak. “That girl was abandoned in our forest. I personally took care of her. That was… how do you say it… years ago? Yes, years, about 17 years. As you can see, she is also a wolf, so we took care of her as part of the pack. We tried several times to take her to the humans, but she always returned to the forest, so in the end, I have been taking care of her as if she were my own daughter.”

Wow, what heartless being would abandon their own daughter? Although I can think of a few examples, my own parents among them. Well, I wasn't exactly abandoned, but I'll save that story for another time. Karen and Kharel didn't understand anything and were staring at me intently. Okay, we need to sort this out; I can't be a translator and talk at the same time, or we'll be here all night.

“Well, if we're going to collaborate,” I said, “I propose something, Aewyn.” The girl perked up, her ears raised, and looked at me expectantly. “Do you want to form a pact with me?”

“A pact?” The blue-haired girl tilted her head again.

“We will form a bond like the one Nozomi and I have. This way, you will probably be able to understand what my companions are saying, and we will both be stronger, allowing us to defeat the demon easily.”

Honestly, I don't know if this is a good idea. Nozomi seems to understand what the twins say and can talk to them, so technically Aewyn should be able to communicate with them too. Plus, we will both be much stronger, as I've said. Judging by her punch, her strength should be quite high. Aewyn looked thoughtful, and I noticed an intense gaze from Nozomi. Don't tell me she's gotten jealous?

“Is something wrong?”

Nozomi jumped.

“Are you sure, Master?” Her voice sounded nervous. “She has hurt you a lot.”

“I know,” I said. Oh, she was just being overprotective; how cute. “But if we gain an ally like her, I won't take as much damage in the future,” or at least I hope…

Nozomi fell silent, her expression complicated on her gelatinous face, which made me let out a small laugh.

“I think it's a good idea,” Wulfred spoke after seeing how much Aewyn was thinking about it; she almost seemed like she was going to smoke from thinking so hard. “If we want to end the creature, any help is welcome.”

Aewyn stared at Wulfred, her face showing annoyance, but after a while, she let out a loud sigh and turned to me.

“I accept, if it helps save the pack,” Aewyn alternated her gaze between Wulfred and me, her eyes radiating determination. “I will gladly form a pact with you.”

I nodded and extended my hand.

“When you shake my hand,” I said, “the pact will be formed. We can break it at any time, so don't worry.” Aewyn nodded and squeezed my hand. “Dark Pact.”

After saying the name of the ability, just like last time, a window appeared: “A pact will be formed with a ‘Filgyanta.’ Are you sure?” I nodded vigorously. Aewyn looked at me strangely. Then a dark energy emerged from the palm of my hand and enveloped the girl's hand. “Pact successfully formed. ‘Aewyn’ has been added to the summoning menu.” Does that mean I can dismiss her like with Nozomi? Better not test it. I opened the status window and then the ability I had just used; there she was, Aewyn, summoning her cost 150 MP, while Nozomi cost 100, so I think I won't dismiss them, and everyone will be happy. I can't afford the cost. Alright, time to check why it costs so much MP. I thought about Aewyn's status, and her statistics appeared. She is level 20, 20 years old, and is a wolf-type Filgyanta. Her class is explorer, and her strength, speed, agility, endurance, and vitality exceeded 200 points. Her intelligence barely reached 20 points, and her luck was close to 100. She had 3 abilities: “Animal Instinct,” “Animal Bond,” and “Explorer Skills.” Within “Explorer Skills,” which was at level 3, she had “Keen Senses,” “Speak with Animals,” “Tracking,” and “Natural Camouflage.” Keen Senses and Animal Instinct were two passive skills that worked very well together. Animal Instinct, which was at maximum level, allowed Aewyn to act on instinct, like a wild animal, while Keen Senses, at level 7, tripled all her senses for five minutes. With that ability activated, it was very likely that this girl could dodge any blow. Animal Bond, which was also at maximum level, allowed her to bond with an animal, enabling her to share her senses with the bonded animal and summon it for help regardless of the distance; she was bonded to Wulfred. Speak with Animals, a skill that was at maximum level, allowed her to talk to and understand animals, regardless of the species, for 5 hours—quite impressive. Tracking, which was at level 3, allowed the user to search for traces and receive information from those traces. Finally, Natural Camouflage could be said to be similar to “one with the shadows,” except instead of becoming harder to detect, it allowed her to blend in with her surroundings, masking her scent and muffling sounds. Now I understand why her punch hurt so much; she probably held back, as I think she could have broken my skull if she wanted to. But thanks to her, my stats now reached three digits, except for luck, but well, that’s not too important.

While I was looking at Aewyn's characteristics and abilities, she was staring at her palm with curiosity; the same mark that appeared on Nozomi had appeared on her.

“Welcome to the group,” Nozomi said with a smile. “My name is Nozomi; it's a pleasure to meet you.”

The wolf girl looked at the slime in surprise. “Can you talk?” Aewyn crouched down to Nozomi's height, resting her head on the ground while showing a big smile. “It's the first time I've heard a slime talk!” Her tail wagged happily from side to side. “I’m Aewyn!”

Nozomi leaned closer to Aewyn's face and touched her cheek with her own. Aewyn grabbed her with both hands and lifted her while rubbing her face against Nozomi's body. The slime was initially surprised but soon showed a goofy smile. Karen stood up; from her expression, she seemed annoyed—or perhaps jealous? She approached Aewyn and cleared her throat, probably to get the wolf girl's attention.

“It seems we can communicate now,” Karen extended her hand, maintaining a neutral tone, hiding her annoyance. “My name is Karen; it's a pleasure to meet you.”

Aewyn pulled her face away from Nozomi and looked closely at Karen, examining her from head to toe. A grimace of annoyance appeared on the redhead's face. After a few seconds, Aewyn lunged at Karen, still holding Nozomi in her arms. The blue-haired girl hugged Karen as they both fell to the ground, with the slime caught between the breasts of both girls. I saw Kharel's face, which could be described as “Lucky Slime.”

“I’m Aewyn!” The blue-haired girl was rubbing her face against Karen's right cheek. “Nice to meet you!”

Karen was trying to free herself from the wolf's embrace, but her efforts were in vain; Aewyn's strength was much greater and prevented the redhead from moving. Karen shot me a pleading look; she was very overwhelmed. I approached Aewyn and grabbed her furry tail, which was wagging back and forth. She jumped, quickly separating from Karen and getting on all fours, showing a challenging face. But upon seeing me, she relaxed and stood back up. Something tells me this girl doesn't know how to hide her emotions.

“I'm sorry, Aewyn,” I said, “but I don't think Karen likes being smothered like that.”

The blue-haired girl turned her gaze to Karen, who stood up with Nozomi in her arms, clearly annoyed. Seeing this, Aewyn lowered her ears, and her tail stopped moving; she was clearly remorseful.

“I’m sorry…” The wolf girl looked like she was on the verge of tears, while Karen simply sighed.

“You shouldn't be so affectionate,” Karen said, stepping behind me and whispering in my ear, “Can you control her or something? I think she’ll end up killing us before the demon does.”

I couldn't help but laugh at the comment. Considering Aewyn's strength, she could easily take us out; the idea of her doing it by accident seemed amusing.

“Look, she's sorry,” I pointed out to the wolf girl, who was looking at us with a sad expression, her yellow eyes glistening.

Kharel approached Aewyn and gently patted her head. The wolf girl towered over the redhead, but with her head lowered, he had no trouble ruffling her fur.

“Don’t worry,” he said to her, “my sister is always like this.” Aewyn lifted her gaze, her ears perked up, and her tail began to wag side to side. Kharel stepped back and extended his arms. “I’m Kharel, Karen’s brother. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The redhead flashed a radiant and sincere smile.

Aewyn hesitated for a moment but then lunged at Kharel and hugged him, causing both of them to tumble to the ground.

“I’m Aewyn!” Just like that, the wolf girl was smiling again, rubbing her cheek against Kharel’s face. He had a smile on his face and looked a bit flushed, probably because he was feeling Aewyn’s chest against his own.

Karen handed Nozomi to me and approached the pair. Neither of them seemed inclined to move from their position, so the redhead didn’t hesitate to whack Aewyn on the head with her staff and then tap Kharel on the forehead. Both of them groaned in pain and began to roll on the ground.

“Can you stop clowning around?” Karen no longer hid her annoyance. “In case you’ve forgotten, we need to come up with a plan.” I heard laughter coming from Wulfred, and I joined in. The redhead turned to me. “You shouldn’t encourage them, Ray. Say something.”

“I don’t think I need to intervene,” I pointed out behind Karen. Aewyn and Kharel had gotten up from the ground and were walking toward us, both looking remorseful.

“It’s the first time Aewyn interacts with other people,” Wulfred spoke with a nostalgic tone and then lowered his voice. “I hope you take her to see the world; this isn’t a place for someone like her.”

I alternated my gaze between Wulfred, who had moved to stand beside me, and Aewyn, while Karen was scolding both of them, who had knelt down.

“I don’t want to force her,” I said. “The decision will be hers.”

Wulfred simply nodded in silence while watching the other three.